I would venture to guess that the majority of people ages 15 to 30 know these are the last words of the seventh and final Harry Potter novel.

Or maybe not.

I’m a nerd.

I have loved Harry Potter since my mother first read the book to me when I was 10 years old. I was 12 when I forced my sixth grade class to petition the principal for a field trip to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in theaters. I was 17 when the final book was published.

And I continued my nerdiness on July 11 as I sweated with hundreds of other people in the sticky New York summer, waiting for a glimpse of the Potter cast.

It was a sweaty crowd. It was a loud crowd. It was a sentimental crowd.